Kate periodically return to the U.S. She is available for speaking engagements as their schedule permits. Email her to extend an invitation.

About Kate Taber's ministryKate is serving on the ministry team of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. She assists U.S. Presbyterians visiting the Holy Land and facilitates Presbyterian involvement in volunteer opportunities. In addition Kate helps build relationships between U.S. Presbyterians and church partners in Israel and Palestine.

About Kate Taber“I want to help U.S. Presbyterians know and engage with Palestinian Christians: their lives, their ministries, their joys, and their struggles,” Kate says. “I hope our denomination might be a faithful Christian witness in and about the Holy Land.”

Kate is working amid a longstanding political conflict that frequently takes center stage on the world scene. She has come to Israel-Palestine with the benefit of having lived there previously. She spent several months in the region on a Parish Pulpit Fellowship, an award given by Princeton Theological Seminary.

Kate anticipates that maintaining hope “and a vision of God’s kingdom” will not be without challenges. Yet she feels “it’s a joy to partner with the people of Christmas Lutheran Church and all our ecumenical partners there who steadfastly labor in hope for justice and peace.”

As Kate approaches her task of connecting U.S. Presbyterians and Palestinian Christians, she is convinced of the interconnectedness of the Church of Jesus Christ and the universality of God’s love. “When we open ourselves to other cultures, languages, and worship traditions, we see aspects of God that we would never have known otherwise,” she says. “We are invited into God’s work, to partner with and be in communion with children of God everywhere.”

Building relationships with other Christians, she emphasizes, is a heartfelt need of Christians living in the Holy Land. “The Christians of Palestine and Israel especially need and ask for this communion and partnership as they struggle with daily life in a conflict zone, and I feel called to connect U.S. Presbyterians with them and their stories.”

Despite the trauma caused by the longstanding conflict and military occupation, Kate sees much splendor in Israel-Palestine. “The land is beautiful, the food is delicious, the culture is rich, and the people are the most welcoming I have ever met,” she explains. She also is moved by the deep love the region’s people have for their land and culture. “I am eager to continue to watch and learn from this love.”

Kate finds hope in the promise of Isaiah 65:19: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.” This scripture, she says, reminds her of God’s care for the land where she is serving and that the current situation is not what God desires. “God intends there to be—as God does for all places—peace, joy, hope, and love. The work to recreate it in this way is ultimately God’s work.”

Prior to entering mission service Kate was a resident pastor at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, serving in a Lilly Foundation–funded residency program for new ministers. She holds a B.A. degree from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and an M.Div. degree from Princeton Seminary. She is a member of the Greater Atlanta Presbytery.